HOUSTON — Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz weathered an intense charge by Democratic Congressman Beto O’Rourke and won a second term Tuesday night in one of the most high-spirited and best-financed campaigns in Texas history.

The victory came around 9:30 p.m. as networks and The Associated Press projected Cruz the winner of what had been a close race as the unofficial returns began trickling, then streaming, in.

“Tonight is a victory for the state of Texas,” Cruz said to loud applause as he bounded onto the state at a hotel ballroom in Houston. “Heidi and I and the girls say thank you.

"This election wasn’t about me and it wasn’t about Beto O’Rourke. It was a contest of ideas. The people of this state decided this race.”

Cruz, a product of the tea party insurgency that steamrolled the Texas political landscape in the wake of Barack Obama’s election to the presidency 10 years ago, rode to victory this round on the same conservative tide that launched his political career and made him a household name almost as soon as he first arrived in Washington.

About 1,000 supporters at his victory party crammed inside a hotel ballroom let out a large and sustained cheer when the Fox News Network called the race for Cruz. Other news outlets followed suit.

Cruz was joined in victory by Gov. Greg Abbott. Down the statewide ballot, other incumbent Republicans faced surprisingly close races. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the others were holding a narrow leads.

"Ted Cruz took the hardest punch that $70 million could throw," said state Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Houston Republican, speaking before Cruz almost as soon as the projections were made.

Rebecca Crabb, left, of the Trumpettes of America celebrates as incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is announced as the winner over challenger Rep. Beto O'Rourke during the Dallas County Republican Party election night watch party on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018 at The Statler Hotel in Dallas. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter) Jeffrey McWhorter, AP

"He poured his heart out in this campaign," Cruz said to a small smattering of boos that he quickly tamped down. "Millions of people in this state were inspired by his campaign. ... My responsibility is to represent every Texan."

Cruz’s victory capped a long, grinding campaign that gave Texas its most charged-up midterm election cycle in recent memory. And campaign that continued through Election Day as his forces continued running TV ads while scouring the state for any and all possible votes.

Cruz’s post-election party was held in a packed ballroom of the high-end Hilton Post Oak by the Galleria, about seven miles west of downtown Houston.

The race, which drew national and international attention because of Cruz’s status as a former presidential candidate and because of the star power gained by the upstart O’Rourke, who became a fundraising powerhouse in a campaign he started 18 month ago as a prohibitive longshot that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in 30 years..

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Texas senators traditionally make a difference in the nation's capital. And some of them have made history.
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More than 40 camera crews and dozens of print journalists were nestled in the middle of the ballroom and surrounded by Republican well-wishers.

With nearly all the late-campaign polls showing Cruz maintaining a stubborn, if narrow lead, the incumbent closed his campaign Monday night after a string of high-energy rallies in his home base of Harris County.

When at each stop most of his supporters signaled they had voted early, Cruz urged them to call friends, neighbors, co-workers and relatives to make sure they’d make it to the polls on Tuesday,

For O’Rourke, Tuesday night’s capped 19 months of campaigning by an unorthodox candidate, who has spent that time crisscrossing the state in a rented minivan with two staffers who documented his every move on Facebook’s live video feature.

He raised record-breaking money in the race after pledging not to accept contributions from political action committees. The effort sparked a light in Texas Democrats, who have not a won a Senate race since Lloyd Bentsen’s last campaign in 1988 and have not who’ve not won any statewide contest in 24 years.

Cruz, meanwhile, was something of a party-crasher in 2012 when he plowed past the wait-your-turn tradition among Texas Republicans and filed for the top spot on the statewide ticket in his first-ever run for political office.

Then he went from party-crasher to giant-killer when in a bitter GOP primary runoff, Cruz upended three-term Lt. Gov. and establishment favorite David Dewhurst to grab the party’s nomination for the Senate seat vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Cruz’s insurgency was fueled by many of the same tea-party conservatives who two years earlier not only derailed Hutchison’s dream of becoming Texas governor, but powered a Republican tsunami that swept away 24 Democratic seats in the statehouse and three Texas Democrats from Congress.

No sooner had Cruz taken his seat in the Senate did he begin thumbing his nose at both its institutions and many of its institutional figures. He took to the Senate floor to accuse Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of lying to him. He tussled with the late Sen. John McCain, prompting the 2008 Republican presidential nominee to call Cruz “a wacko bird.”

Then-House Speaker John Boehner called Cruz both “a miserable son of bitch” and “Lucifer in the flesh.

Still Cruz, after less than four years in office, mounted a credible campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He won the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus, and went on to win 11 other primaries and caucuses before losing to Donald Trump.

Tuesday marked the end of a whirlwind campaign for El Paso’s Beto O’Rourke, who challenged U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for his seat in the U.S. Senate.

The race quickly became the most-watched statewide, and helped spark record-breaking voter turnout for a non-presidential election.

Robert Lowry, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Dallas said it is unclear if the turnout heralds the dawn of renewed participation in a state perennially at the bottom in the voter-participation department.

“My guess it’s a one-off, with few exceptions,” Lowry said. “The next election is a presidential election, and assuming Donald Trump runs again, there’s going to be a whole lot of interest.

“If young voters turnout again, they might develop a habit of voting that sticks with them for the rest of their lives.”

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Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10 p.m. on election night with his wife, Amy Sanders O'Rourke, and conceded the race to incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech at the packed Southwest University Park. Mark Lambie/El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10 on election night alongside his wife, Amy Sanders O'Rourke, and conceded the race to incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed Southwest University Park. Mark Lambie/El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10pm Tuesday along side his wife Amy Sanders O'Rouke and conceded the race to incumbent Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed-to-the-gills Southwest Univeristy Park. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke took the stage a little after 10 on election night alongside his wife, Amy Sanders O'Rourke, and conceded the race to incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. A sad but still energized crowd cheered on O'Rourke as he gave a passionate speech to the packed Southwest University Park. Mark Lambie/El Paso Times

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus Tuesday. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, stopped at Mesiat Elementary School to greet volunteers and voters early Tuesday morning. O’Rourke who earlier had walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus, was all smiles as voters asked to tae pictures with him. RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus Tuesday. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus Tuesday. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus Tuesday. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus Tuesday. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, stopped at Mesiat Elementary School to greet volunteers and voters early Tuesday morning. O’Rourke who earlier had walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus, was all smiles as voters asked to tae pictures with him. RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, stopped at Mesiat Elementary School to greet volunteers and voters early Tuesday morning. O’Rourke who earlier had walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus, was all smiles as voters asked to tae pictures with him. RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, stopped at Mesiat Elementary School to greet volunteers and voters early Tuesday morning. O’Rourke who earlier had walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus, was all smiles as voters asked to tae pictures with him. RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus Tuesday. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, stopped at Mesiat Elementary School to greet volunteers and voters early Tuesday morning. O’Rourke who earlier had walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus, was all smiles as voters asked to tae pictures with him. RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, stopped at Mesiat Elementary School to greet volunteers and voters early Tuesday morning. O’Rourke who earlier had walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus, was all smiles as voters asked to tae pictures with him. RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus Tuesday. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, stopped at Mesiat Elementary School to greet volunteers and voters early Tuesday morning. O’Rourke who earlier had walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus, was all smiles as voters asked to tae pictures with him. RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, walked from his Sunset Heights home in El Paso to vote at the El Paso Community College Rio Grande Campus Tuesday. Mark Lambie / El Paso Times

Political strategist Desi Canela who advises Democrats but was not involved in the Senate race said candidates in the future would be wise to emulate the O’Rourke strategy to spur what in past cycles had been low-propensity voters to the polls.

“He understood how to use Facebook and compelling video to engage a base of millennial that, basically, feels ignored,” Canela said.

O’Rourke ran a competitive race against Cruz, but pre-election polling suggested that a victory would be just out of reach. Texas has not elected a Democrat statewide since 1995.

O’Rourke entered the race with little name recognition outside of his hometown of El Paso, which he has represented in the U.S. House since 2012. His campaign drew national spotlight to El Paso, as he made frequent references to the city throughout the race.

O’Rourke returned to El Paso the night before Election Night for a rally tailored to his hometown.

"I am more hopeful than I have ever been, and it is because of this community," O'Rourke said on Monday. "This is the community in which I was raised, it's the community in which we're raising our kids right now, this is a community in which I am so fiercely proud."

"Amy and I were emotional as we were driving here today," he said. "El Paso, I love you more than I can say."

Regardless of the outcome Tuesday, eyes are on O’Rourke’s political future.

O’Rourke said he has no plans to run for president during a televised town hall with CNN in October, telling the crowd that he would serve out his entire six-year term if elected to the Senate.

“If I don’t win, I’ll be back in El Paso,” he said before votes were counted.

Madlin Mekelburg and John C. Moritz are reporters with the USA Today Network Austin Bureau.